


Ravenous

by Koroshimasu



Series: Nemesis [5]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Bad Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Biohazard, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, End of the World, Feels, Flashbacks, Forbidden Love, Heavy Angst, Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, One Shot Collection, RK900 has no name, Sad, Virus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:14:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23063047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Koroshimasu/pseuds/Koroshimasu
Summary: Does a warning appear in a dream, or a nightmare?
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Series: Nemesis [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1649245
Comments: 7
Kudos: 22





	Ravenous

**Ravenous**

“Gavin!! We’re ready for another!!”

Gavin Reed looked up at his friend and right-hand man’s call to see the truck unloading the newest trainees at the camp he himself he finally put together after almost eight months of wandering through a dried-up New Mexico, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Washington. The man was beyond weary and drained, but he considered his efforts fruitful, to say the least. As he knew, he of course hadn’t been the last one. He’d found and rescued a small group of twenty-nine people so far, majority men, but a group he was so proud to call his own family.

They’d built a small wall and fence surrounding their camp that protected them from deadly and mutated animals, no doubt due to the virus growing stronger and stronger by day. Gavin wasted no time training his new team, even all the women. Everyone learned the very basics of self-defense, and when ready, Gavin and a few members struck out to gather more weapons, food, clothing, as well as medical supplies in cases of emergency.

Although he’d been alone for far too long, now that he was again among friends with the hope that they all had a chance, the brave man felt his luck and confidence return to himself in no time. They’d weathered through all sorts of storms, and Gavin noticed that as the months wore on, they had yet to see an android…whether this was bad or good news was immaterial. The less of them they saw, the better either way. Perhaps they were all in their own ‘hell’, and it suited him just fine not knowing specifics.

His attention was immediately arrested by a small, sandy blond trainee standing amidst his taller and more muscular counterparts. The man who’d called out to Gavin was a tall African American man named Xavier. The man he soon had grown to trust deeply was among the first Gavin had recruited, and although trusting, Gavin suspected that Xavier was a little ‘worse of wear’ these days. He was unnecessarily grueling and difficult, especially with some of the younger men who’d been placed under rigorous and intense training.

Gavin shook his head while he spat back, “Xavier!! I told you to go easy on these kids! Shit!”

Clearly not caring that this new youth in particular was already stressed out enough, Xavier threw his head back and clipped out, “Jesus! Is Commander Reed that hard up for recruits that he’s fine robbing cradles now?” Gesturing crudely at the young man in question as though he weren’t even near, he added, “This kid can’t be that long out of high school!!”

Gritting his teeth while he sat down at an old, half termite infested bench outside the cabins and tents of the camp, Gavin allowed the sandy breeze to billow past while he sharpened his hunting blade. “Xavier, shut it!”

Unrelenting, the other man snorted, “What’s the bet he’ll run at the first sight of trouble, Reed?”

Catching the young man shaking violently, Gavin sighed to himself and continued with his task, knowing fully well that Xavier didn’t need to be encouraged. “No bet,” Gavin laughed derisively as he forced his thoughts away from the fact that it was a huge possibility that this new kid was only trying to play tough and mighty; he was even wielding his shotgun backwards. Xavier was probably right, but Gavin didn’t want to give the man an inch; he would soon run his mouth and scare Frieda, especially. She was a young woman who had a case of severe anxiety and suffered from panic attacks. A lot of the other women also suspected she was with child, and due to the human population already being practically on the brink of god damn extinction, Gavin didn’t need for anyone to terrify Frieda and have her lose her baby.

No. Under his watch, no one else was going to be harmed, starting with this new kid.

“Just leave the kid alone, Xavier,” Gavin ordered in a frustrated tone as he finally placed his blade back into the strap of his boot and then turned his attention back on the codebook he had been studying. “There’s no need to pick on anyone, seein’ as well need all the help we can get.”

Shaking his head and waving him off, Xavier grunted, “I give it a few days, tops.”

Gavin shoved into his ears old headphones just as a means of sending the message across to his second in command that the conversation was over.

*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~

With Freida’s pregnancy going well, Gavin hadn’t paid much more attention to the new man in their camp since, though he did listen to the scuttlebutt that started to float around the camp about the new guy. Word had spread early that the kid was one of two survivors of a brutal human massacre by androids in Portland Oregon. That had earned him quite a lot of respect in the camp for having run the gauntlet of android and animal mutants, caused by the viral outbreak, at ground zero to escape the horror. However, it was also generally known that the kid had been terribly mentally scarred by the experience. Even now, some several months after the event, his fellow trainees would talk sympathetically among themselves about how he still found difficulty in sleeping through the night. Beyond the first few rough nights at the camp though, he had been careful not to wake his roommates or neighbors.

Strangely, while the kid hadn’t been the best fighter and couldn’t hold his own weight in physical combat training, he took great care of the women. Gavin needed all the help he could get. Due to Xavier’s never-ending nagging and complaining, Gavin himself decided to lead and send out the medical teams to do supply checks, while also permitting the new kid, Arrol Jordan to train the women. It all went well in a steady routine for a while without incident. Gavin had even ceased hearing other members of the camp discussing how fearful they were. For once, it seemed like they would have a fighting chance if they held out this way long enough.

Unfortunately, one woman in particular, Eva, found she couldn’t handle the more ‘intense’ and severe simulator survival training Gavin helped everyone get through in cases of severe emergency. Everything would start off relatively well, but when he forced the teams to split up and reenact a scenario involving rabid animals and mutants attacking them, Eva would suddenly exhibit PTSD symptoms in the middle of class. While her overreactions were understandable, it was, unfortunately, very dangerous for other members and instructors who did not exercise caution around her during those thankfully infrequent periods. For the instructors, it was a juggle of allowance and freedom versus restraint and control, and knowing how to safely snap Eva out of a delusion where she’d be imagining herself fighting vicious creatures she didn’t even want to look at ever again.

If there were some negative experiences, however, they were vastly outweighed by the positive ones. Two ‘leaders’ Gavin knew would definitely be able to soon lead the different teams themselves without his supervision impressed him daily. Chris and Vic-both trainees, made sure Gavin could sleep at night. The two men in their mid-twenties provided more weapon stocks than anyone else and were constantly supplying clothes and supplements. They ventured out on their own, and made it back in good time.

They were a good bunch, and more like a family. Gavin didn’t worry much about them, but he worried for himself. Some six months after he arrived at the camp and stood among his very much admired and cherished group of fellow trainees, Gavin sensed he was losing control over his limbs, and his muscles were growing weaker day by day. It was tough not to show it, but he was deteriorating rapidly. His vision was growing foggy and blurry, but thankfully, the newest recruit had stepped up his ‘game’ and almost shocked everyone.

Xavier would have to eat his own words regarding his belief that Arrol would washout early. During one of those rare moments when the instructors would bring old and new trainees together for lessons, Gavin found himself standing before the class with his knife in hand and facing Arrol. Gavin didn’t find himself to be any more impressed with the rookie then than he was previously. It was noticeable that the man had bulked up some due to the special diet and rigorous exercise the camp foisted on all trainees, but while Arrol Jordan stopped looking like a lost lamb all the time, he was still small and ‘puny’ in comparison to most of the other trainees and instructors in the camp. Hell, even some of the women were beefier and bulkier than he could ever be.

Regardless, Gavin was proud of his team. They’d done their best with whatever they could find, and in this odd, dying world that was hanging on its last thread of hope, there wasn’t much time to be negative.

…But his hands trembled and seized up. His legs and knees would lock up and he couldn’t move every once in a while. The last time it’d happened, Gavin nearly bashed his head against the shower walls and had gotten away with forming a rather nasty bump on his head.

He had to keep on going. There was a cause here, and a purpose worth fighting for. Looking around at the young ones with so much energy and hope, he was reminded specifically of _who_ he was fighting for.

Nodding at Arrol, he barked out, “Jordan!! Let’s go!!” His crisp call from the sidelines brought Arrol’s attention back to the older man facing himself. Wielding his knife, Gavin ordered, “Don’t hold back, you hear me?!”

“But—” The smaller blond drew the combat knife from his shoulder mounted sheath with his right hand nervously. It looked like he really didn’t want to attack for the sake of even practicing, but that was an insult to Gavin.

"Yes,” he sarcastically jabbed, “monsters and death will remain unbiased as fuck, so you have to be ready, Jordan!!”

Arrol flashed a less-than confident grimace at the instructor when he glanced in his direction. From afar near the small garden of food the women had grown for a few months, Xavier rolled his eyes and shook his head at the display.

Gavin hissed, “You’ll be fine! You hear me, recruit?”

Nodding nervously, the young man crowed, “Yes, Sir!”

“And Jordan! I don’t need dead recruits, so mind your enthusiasm.” Smirking, Gavin got in a ‘combative’ and aggressive position, gathering his energy to attack Arrol full on.

“Yes, Sir!” Arrol snorted inwardly to himself as he watched the other man settle on the balls of his feet. Gavin flashed his young recruit a predatory smile as he twirled his knife in his hand.

“Come on, comrade. I won’t hurt you...much.”

This would be a piece of cake…so he ran. The moment their blades collided, Arrol had tricked Gavin by landing a powerful kick to his sternum that sent him flying back into a few chairs and plastic tables. His skull knocked into one of them, and as Gavin cradled the injured area, he saw stars and blackness weaving back and forth.

A figure was coming at him, full-speed, and he couldn’t even move. His weapon had been tossed somewhere to the side, and there was no time at all to retrieve it…

Shit!

Suddenly, the shadowy figure leapt and dove at him, and a long, twenty-inch long talon slid out from the right side of its shoulder. A needle-like claw darted forth, dripping with blue-black goo and tar Gavin had seen before…

Something happened far too quickly; one moment, he was trying to roll out of the way before it impaled him like a harpoon flying at him, but then the next, a hand roughly grabbed him by the center of his shirt.

A putrid stench hit his nose, and Gavin could only shrivel up in fear. He didn’t even have the courage to look at this being in the eyes. To look at it would show how frightened he was, and he didn’t want to be afraid anymore.

It growled, and it startled him beyond anything else he could conjure up in his darkest nightmares.

“Get back up, solider.”

*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~

_“I bet you’re ashamed and embarrassed…the kid was good while you had been far too cocky and overconfident…”_

_He wished he could’ve seen the demeanor shift, warning him that the kid was no longer here, and he was instead seeing another thing as an opponent. The former detective_ _trembled as he_ _sat there in a pool of his own blood with the talon and odd tentacle-like thing emanating from the creature’s shoulder dug into his flesh. It hurt to the point where he couldn’t even feel a damn thing. Smiling and laughing was the only way to deal with it, and it was a method he resorted to all too often_.

_“I bet you don’t even recognize me, do you?”_

_No, he found he couldn’t recognize the danger immediately. Weakly, he rasped, “Should I know you?” Coughing up blood, he dabbed at his lips with the back of a hand, only to hear the thing with an oddly familiar man’s voice chuckling._

_Gavin growled, “What’s so fuckin’ funny?”_

_“You,” the incredibly tall figure with no distinct form or shape grunted. “You are slowly dying on the inside, yet you have no problem with it…as I once noticed within you.”_

_Alarm bells blared off at once. Squinting up, Gavin found that his eyes were finally able to make out a shortly cut crop of dark brown hair, piercing, cold blue eyes, a square-shaped face, thin lips, and a vicious smirk thrown his way._

_Jaw quivering, he wheezed, “Y-you…h-how…”_

_The hook-like talon yanked him up, and he screamed wildly as he was hoisted back onto his feet. It retracted its grasp on him, at least, and then it tossed him his blade. “Use it,” the android growled in an order. “Take me down, if you can.”_

_Staring down at his weapon, Gavin only frowned in confusion. Was this a dream? A nightmare? Had he somehow died?? Was this hell or heaven?? All these questions flew through his mind rapidly, but he found there wasn’t much time in even asking. The android with the oddly formed tentacle made mostly from wire unleashed a brutal attack with its sharp appendage._

_Springing to action, Gavin made use of his greater reach and strength to keep the creature on the defensive. Then, Gavin suddenly launched into an attack, but the android had read through his move at once. Knocking him back with its razor-sharp tentacle, it did well to push Gavin aside down into his own blood again._

_Advancing on the human, it hissed, “Do you have a fight in you, or not? Is there a purpose, or is it all empty as you want to have others believe?” Before its tentacle could lash out, Gavin raised his blade to block an expected slash. Coiling and twisting around his right hand wrist, the tentacle was trying to unarm him. The smaller man had tossed the knife, caught it in his left hand and struck at the android’s unprotected side. Too late, Gavin remembered the advantage_ _his wisely crafted two-edged blade had over his own single edged blade, especially to one who was able to fight ambidextrously with a knife and could therefore flip the said weapon from hand to hand._

_In that split second of his victory, Gavin slipped within his guard. The android took the advantage, swiping at his feet and rendering him defenseless. Gavin barely pulled back in time to avoid getting the razor end point of the tentacle up his chin and through his brain. He had been lucky that the appendage only sliced his lips and face and that the splash of blood woke Gavin from his moment of unreality before he could follow through with an eviscerating slash. If this fight had been for real out in the field..._

_His knife was thrown away again, and the tentacle wrapped about his wrist. Bending on a knee so they were on eye level, the android he’d once held so dearly and loved more than anyone else in the world smiled as though proud._

_“Good,” it cooed at him pleasantly before stroking his cheek fondly. “You can still help them, Gavin. Do it for them, if not, for yourself.” Eyes shining, it rose to its full height before whispering faintly, “When all hope is lost, remember that you will be the one to renew hope for a new age.”_

_“You…you’re leaving me again…” Far too weak, he wished he could crawl after it, but it moved away too quickly._

_Disappearing like mist, it left him with a last sentence that chilled Gavin to the bone._

_“I’ll see you soon.”_

*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~

The first thing Gavin saw when he woke was Xavier’s and Frieda’s concerned faces before himself. He was lying down on a small mattress, and when he stirred, he felt pain shooting through his head.

Snarling at him ferociously like a rabid animal, Xavier cried, “Now, I have a kid out there who thinks--no—who _knows_ he damn near killed you! Do you know how many months you’ve set him back in therapy?”

While Frieda gently ran a warm, wet cloth over his cheeks and chin, Gavin winced at the memory of Arrol’s shocked face before he blacked out. The kid had been terrified, concerned and apologetic.

Shrugging, and then cursing himself for doing so when it hurt like a bitch, Gavin closed his eyes and just lay flatly on his back. “The kid was definitely good, Xavier,” chuckling in pride, he elucidated calmly, “he didn’t put on airs and he showed genuine concern and embarrassment for injuring me, and I think that means he’s good.”

Roaring, Xavier pounded a fist into the ground. “You’re damn lucky you didn’t lose an eye or bust your dumb skull open!”

At that reminder, Gavin’s hand unconsciously reached up to touch the bandages on his numbed face. Oh, it was going to hurt like the blazes and fires of hell once the anesthesia wore off. The stitching running up along his left temple, he knew, was going to scar, and scar badly. Well…when he looked at himself in a mirror from now on, he’d remember to never underestimate his opponent, nor to judge a person from looks alone.

“Christ! Reed, you know better than to relax in the middle of combat and have your ass distracted when we have training with real weapons!” The man he’d left in charge as his right-hand was still ranting. “And what the hell were you _thinkin’_ when Jordan went into a kill-or-be-killed mode? Shit! He’s killed literally hundreds before we ever got our hands on him!! You should have broken off the spar!”

Gavin sighed inwardly and let him go on. He knew that he had handed the instructor as great a scare to have one recruit almost cause the death of another. And Arrol Jordan? Gavin told himself that he really should have known better than to take it easy on a man who had, not a year earlier, slaughtered well over a hundred mutant beings and bio-organic weapons during his track to look for survivors and when escaping a doomed city. As it was, the kid probably had a higher kill record than the whole camp put together, at this point. The instructors had their work cut out for them in training an operative who could slip easily into killer mode when necessary. Somehow, Gavin just knew that contrary to his first assessment of the man, that Arrol Jordan was going to make it to the top.

It was only a matter of time, but now, he wasn’t interested in that. He was more interested in piecing together the ‘message’ his lover had somehow managed to communicate.

….

No…that…whatever that was, it wasn’t his lover. Gavin had already accepted that from the time the android had parted from his side, it was likely gone. At least he had the fond memories to look back on, and it would help him slip into a peaceful rest.

He closed his eyes.

*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~*.~

_A damn shotgun wasn’t practical in the least because you had to reload so frequently and it usually only took out one monster at a time, but it sure as hell felt good to blast the head clean off those fuckers, so Gavin kept using it. He looked down for a brief moment to stuff two new shells into the gun, but as he was doing so, he heard a roar next to himself and he looked up with a gasp, caught off guard in a rare moment of mistaken safety. A second roar sounded, louder than the first, and Gavin’s eyes went wide as a large bear-like beast covered in scars and burn marks that had been lunging at him was shoulder checked and sent to the ground. A single bullet had stunned it before he fired a shot directly into its face, obliterating everything from jaw up to a bright read smear in the sand, before looking up at his lover in awe. “You...” he began, unable to find the words._

_“Gavin,” he said urgently, looking beyond his partner at the swarm of creatures approaching from over a hill._

_“Right, time to go,” Gavin agreed, while taking a step forward and slipping an arm about his partner’s firm waist. He rested his weight on the taller, stronger being as his lover helped him to limp back to the truck. Not even panicking, Gavin watched like a proud parent as his lover’s clumsy fingers managed to open the door on the third try. The android helped him up into the truck and left the tasks of closing the door and buckling his own seat belt to an injured Gavin while he dashed around the vehicle and got in on the driver’s side. The truck swerved in the sand and took off with a roar of the engine. Dust and sand flew back into the air, and although they’d made a clear exit, there wasn’t much to celebrate. Inside the truck, only Gavin was smiling wider than a Cheshire Cat._

_The android glared out the windows until Gavin rolled his eyes and kicked his feet up on the dashboard. “Come on,” he laughed briskly, “we made it, didn’t we?”_

_Peering down at his broken fingers, the android grunted inelegantly, “You’re no good like that; you have to defend yourself.”_

_They’d already had this conversation before, and Gavin didn’t enjoy being treated like a baby._

_Carrying on anyway, the android suggested, “Maybe soon you can start practicing shooting them…” With hope, it expounded, “Or try working on your motor skills. Hold up one hand for me, Gavin, and three fingers. I want to see three.”_

_They’d been through this shit before, too, but Gavin knew time and time again it was all for his own good. The android cared about his safety. That was enough by itself to nearly cause him to cry like a child. Trying to keep himself composed, he looked down at his hands, then lifted one of them, and his fingers twitched as he strained to keep control of them. Eventually, Gavin had three left standing, his thumb and index finger bent, though not quite down all the way. His gaze became inquiring, hoping he’d pleased his android with his results._

_It nodded, “Perfect. Show me five.”_

_When his index finger and thumb straightened out for all five fingers to be extended on his hand, the android took one hand off the wheel and placed it up against his, matching its hand up to Gavin’s and feeling the slight warmth in his body. He was becoming less and less a corpse and more of a living creature with each passing week. Both men were taken out of their proud thoughts when the android felt Gavin move his hand against his, and it watched with astonishment as the human laced his fingers through its own and curled them closed, so that he was left squeezing them firmly. Gavin’s small, pale hand practically disappeared in his lover’s larger one, but it felt good as he squeezed and slowly, Gavin lowered his fingers to return the clasping union of hands._

_“Gavin,” his lover rasped. The android’s lower lip trembled as Gavin smiled and nodded._

_They drove the rest of the way like that, through the hills and across the sands with their hands clutched together. Never in all this time had Gavin been so well behaved and calm as he was then, and when he wasn’t imitating the android and looking out over the desert for any signs of danger, he was staring at their joined hands. Curiously, his eyes found the curve of the android’s lower lip twitching as he felt one side of his mouth trying to pull back into a smile. When he finally managed one, the focused android didn’t notice, but that was fine; the smile was more for himself than for anyone._

_A sweet scent filled the truck, it was a cloying combination of sweat, dried blood, unwashed hair and dirt, but to Gavin, it was a sweet musk because it was his lover. Strange sensations prickled along his skin and Gavin grunted once. Quietly, he found himself having to look away from the curious android’s glances before they became too powerful and he misbehaved, which made his partner unhappy. Whatever the cause, whatever the reason, he couldn’t put into pretty words or even find a clarified definition in his own mind, but he knew that he felt better when he was touching the one he loved. Tough sometimes, the android caused him pain with what it said and did to him, when the pain was over, Gavin always felt even better than before._

**Author's Note:**

> .......Just realized the RK900 pulled a Sephiroth from Advent Children. *Snort*


End file.
